Olympic capitalise on poor defending

Alvyn Riley was given a start and was making his home debut, while midfielder Matt Telling (pictured) was in the side after turning down an attractive offer to join Worksop Town in midweek

Dean Oliver dropped to the bench alongside Anthony Wilson, who has yet to force his way back into the starting line up.

Barely 15 seconds after the kick off the Nailers made a disastrous start when Mickey Harcourt’s clearance rebounded off Justin Nesbitt and as he tried to head the ball back to Adam Ogden it only reached Tom Ward who lobbed the ball over the Belper ‘keeper and into the net.

Despite the early setback the Nailers made a promising start to the game and they did look likely to recover quickly as they pressed forward, but the Belper slipped further behind in the 8th minute.

Mark Lowe tied Richard Adams up in knots as he weaved his way into the penalty area and before any Belper defender could recover, he hit an angled drive just inside the far post.

The tempo that the Nailers had built up in the early stages evaporated and the game became scrappy with the Pics looking more likely to stretch their lead.

And when skipper James Colliver mistimed his tackle on Justin Nesbitt just inside the corner of the penalty area, the visitors were handed another golden opportunity from the penalty spot which Anthony Maguire gratefully accepted to make it 3-0, this after only 26 minutes.

The Nailers huffed and puffed through until half time and no further damage was done even though Tom Ward might have killed them off completely after putting a powerful header straight at Adam Ogden from a free kick.

Not unexpectedly there were changes right at the start of the second period with Oliver, Wilson and Fedorenko joining the fight back attempt.

And to start with Belper showed much more impetus, but really they needed a quick goal to give them the confidence that something could be retrieved from the game.

Despite plenty of crosses from Luke Fedorenko, most it has to be said were swallowed up fairly easily by Tony Breedon, the Nailers couldn’t create anything clear cut, but at least Jon Froggatt’s 25 yard effort did bring a good save from the Pic’s ‘keeper.

The lifeline, when it arrived in the 79th minute probably came too late to make any real difference to the outcome.

Pics’ defender Tesfa Robinson was adjudged to have fouled Anthony Wilson inside the penalty area, and although from the touch line it didn’t look clear cut, Jon Froggatt duly converted the spot kick to give the final 10 minutes or so more purpose.

However just when a revival looked on the cards Wilson received a second yellow card, the first coming as a result of a reckless challenge on the Pics ‘keeper, and a subsequent second yellow leaving the Nailers looking down the barrel of defeat.

The incident was just what Rushall needed and with nearly everything else seemingly having gone in their favour there now seemed to be no way back for Belper.

Even a five minute spell of added on time never looked likely to undermine the visitor’s grip on the game although Lee Stevenson was unlucky to see his lob over the ‘keeper bounce up and over the cross bar and clearly this was not to be Belper’s day.

Belper Town: Ogden, Colliver, Adams (Oliver 45), Naylor, Harcourt, Haigh, Telling, Stevenson, Froggatt, Ryan (Wilson 45), Riley (Fedorenko 45). Other subs: Hudson, Carney

Rushall Olympic: Breedon, Maguire, Robinson, Preston, Smith, Amos, Fitzpatrick (McNaught 84), Lowe, Ward (Haywood 79), Nisbett, Beckett. Other subs: Edmond, Starkey, Kitching

Referee: Bob Martin (Sheffield)

Attendance: 194

Match Sponsor: Alan Benfield Limited

Man of the Match: Tom Naylor

Match Action: http://www.timharrisonphotography.com/NailersAction/RshllOlym0910/index.html